I was holed up a couple of nights back at TVD HQ, jesus juice in a tumbler to one side, when a note zipped into the email box – some guy wants me to hear this band he thinks I’d like. Now, the difference with this email in contrast to the many daily was that it was just from some dude singing the praises of a band. Nothing more. No sell job. Just ‘methinks you’ll like.’
Refreshing.
…and I did, so much so that Fullerton, CA’s The Steelwells are hanging out with us this week. —Ed.
“It’s hard to imagine we started this thing almost three years ago. Billy, Andrew, Robbie, and our founding drummer Brian (as well as our current drummer Jon) all grew up playing music together. I, on the other hand, am the outsider to this crew. It took some time but I feel like I have been somewhat accepted at this point. All of us were born and raised in Southern California and I think the music does tend to reflect our surroundings.
Our current EP Shallow on the Draft in hindsight draws on some of our Californian influences like The Beach Boys, Calexico, CCR, Jeff Buckley, Pavement, The Rentals, and Starflyer 59 and on and on really. I definitely grew up loving Elvis Costello, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Van Morrison, Frank Sinatra (the whole damn rat pack really). The list gets long. When asked to define our sound or give our influences we tend to get overwhelmed by the question. If I had to define our sound with a gun to my head I think I would have to just say it’s kind of a sweet and sour indie dish. Hopefully the gunman would get confused and hungry at the same time. What I can say is we do our best to make it honest both musically and lyrically.
Since our record release back in October at The House of Blues in Anaheim we have been pretty happy with the positive response to our music. We feel like we made the right choice to put music out there that isn’t trying to be anything other than a reflection of us. I tend to gravitate toward an artist that can dig around for something more from themselves and the music. My suggestion to anyone making any art at all is be honest and grateful. Right now we are writing and doing preproduction for our next EP. While we are very excited to put out some new music we don’t take it lightly that we owe it to ourselves to feel right about what we are making.
So that’s us in a nut. I hope you will check in this whole week while I try to dissect our bands influence’s into its various parts. I’m going to attempt to understand ourselves better musically since this is something we tend avoid getting into. Let’s just take it one day at a time and see where we end up.
I also thought it would be fun to have a little video contest while we are at it. The winner of the contest will receive two guest list spots at any of our up coming shows, a signed cd, a free t-shirt and stickers, as well as dinner with us. If I have time I will cook but more than likely we will go out for burritos. Either way you win!
To enter the contest simply send us a video of you, your friends, or your loved ones dancing to our song This Dance is Out of Your Hands. The band will vote on the best dance and choose the winner. If you’re from out of town you get all of the above and dinner when we tour through your town. We are going to work out the details this week and let it run for about a month. I will have more info as we go along here as well as a link to upload videos. Now DANCE!!!“
—Joey Winter
